Elemental

These are my links for June 15th from 15:51 to 19:56:

• Remember I’m the Bloody Architect: Into the Abyss – Poignant piece from Alice on the recession: "Desperate, and knowing only one industry, many buy vans with their redundancy pay and scratch a living doing jobbing work. Architects and technologists set up their own practices, tiny little one man bands, operating from the spare room or a corner of the living room. They make a living from loo extensions and tiny little alterations. The profession fractures into a thousand small peices."
• WiredBiz | Epicenter | Wired.com – Why consultants will be around for a while yet – clients don't have time to do their own job PLUS the work we do for them (which they *could* do given unlimited time and budget), and also want to reduce risk. Good to remember: "Under Anderson’s model, people will continue to pay good money to save time (that is, those who have more money than time will), lower their risk (such as paying to assure that their Second Life land will still be there, or that their operating system will be supported), because they love something (such as buying virtual items in free videogames), or to increase their status in a community."

admin News business_models, free, recession, web, web2.0

These are my links for June 12th through June 14th:

• Online Mind Mapping – MindMeister – love mindmaps, but the portable app I've been using, Freemind, has some drawbacks. This can make my maps available from any computer. Now if I can import from Freemind…(edit – sweet! Can import from Freemind)
• International markets: 10 fastest growing markets in the world – Building – Fascinating article on world construction markets. S America has only one entry (no Brazil?) with Chavez's Venezuela (not recommended). Africa doesn't feature at all…(edit – Eygpt is in Africa of course)
• Fight the Bull – Why Business People Speak Like Idiots – Feel like that document that surfaced in your inbox is taking a lot of time to say not much of anything? Get even. Send the writer an anonymous message from the Mystery Matador.
• Google Trends: BREEAM, LEED – Groovy graph trending BREEAM against LEED as mentioned online in the UK. LEED, despite being US based, beats BREEAM hands down.
• LinkedIn: Answers: How do you capture and store wind turbine power (non-battery)? – LinkedIn definitely moving up a gear WRT relevance to our industry. Some great discussions going on, including this one.
• LEED ND and Affordable Housing | UrbanWorkbench – Interesting that the criticisms of LEED are equally true of BREEAM. There will always be such problems with rating systems – remember they are a means to an end, not an end in themselves…

mel starrs News BREEAM, business, construction_industry, email, freeware, language, LEED, market, mindmapping, online, socialnetworking, turbine, web2.0, wind

What I’ve been reading about:

• Design Builder – (Relatively) new kids on the DSM software block, 30 day free trial, uses the DOE Energy Plus engine. Anyone got any experience – good or bad?
• Task force gives housing the green light – "This is not about dumbing down or abandoning the concept of zero carbon. This is about ensuring the same high level of carbon savings, but allowing developers more flexibility" Paul King
• Definition of Zero Carbon Report – UKGBC pdf report (41 pp.) on more flexible definition of zero carbon. More on this when I get a chance to read it and others reactions…
• Feedity – Looks like Feedity has a revamp – turn any page into an RSS feed. Now have to go through the ones I did on on the old version and update. So not backwards compatible – bah!
• Smart opportunity missed – Smart metering threshold raised from 73,200 kWh per annum to 732,000 kWh reducing the number of potential businesses covered from 400,000 to 40,000.

mel starrs News Blogging, carbon, competitors, definition, domestic, dsm, EPC, Feeds, free, Housing, Metering, property, rss, service, Software, Sustainability, target, tools, UKGBC, web2.0, zero_carbon

These are my links for April 1st through April 5th:

• How To Find Lost Objects – via LifeHacker – a 122 page pdf on a similar vein to www.flylady.net
• IES <VE SBEM> EPC SOFTWARE MEETS 6TH APRIL DEADLINE – IES on the ball again when it comes to SBEM (even though their DSM software IMO is the tool you ought to use)
• Cover It Live – via Simon Dickson, a killer live blogging app. Might try this for Think 08…
• Cutting carbon will grow US economy – Researchers at Yale University reviewed 25 leading economic models and showed that GDP would increase by around 3 %/y if dramatic carbon cutting measures were adopted across the country.
• 1 April 2008: New release of iSBEM_v3.1.a for EPCs – The overheating calculation still isn't working – expect yet another version in the future…
• Hong Kong BEAM – Green Building Label – Interesting statistics – "A US study, for example, found that certified green buildings cost 1.8% more to design and construct, but yield 20% cost savings over the life of the building."
• PM helps householders go green – Article not that exciting in itself, but found it via Twitter. I love Twitter…"Green Neighbourhoods initiative will give a "green makeover" to up to 100 neighbourhoods in England with an aim to reduce their carbon footprints by more than 60 per cent."
• China Launches Green Building Council: An Interview with Kevin Hydes, World GBC Chair – China, BREEAM and LEED. International standards currently only used in office buildings for multinationals or upscale apartments. China's version called what? (link goes to mandarin site)

mel starrs News BEAM, Blogging, BREEAM, business_case, calculator, carbon, certification, China, commitments, dsm, ebook, Economics, free, government, green, Green Building Council, gtd, ies, Kevin Hydes, LEED, lifehacks, Productivity, SBEM, Simon Dickson, Software, United Kingdom, United States, web2.0, www.flylady.net, Yale University